Chen Dajuan's natal family is in Xiaochen Village, which is a clan-style village and one of the collateral lines of the Qingfeng Chen family. Wailuhu, who fled the famine and settled down in Xiaochen Village, wanted to get married with the marriageable children of the aborigines of Xiaochen Village in order to integrate into Xiaochen Village more quickly, or to avoid being bullied and ostracized. , outsiders get married and hug each other.
As soon as Li Pingan and his grandmother settled down, she decided to marry her eldest daughter Li Dafang to Zhang Yu, an Orion who was also a migrant. It was not because she was anxious, but because the Jing Dynasty had regulations for population growth, and the minimum age for men to get married was eighteen years old. If a woman is sixteen years old at the latest and does not marry after that age, a single tax will be levied every year.
This tax is very heavy. It is the same in the first year, doubles in the following year, and doubles every year on the basis of the previous year. If you can't pay this tax, the government will force a marriage, which is the so-called state giving wives to husbands. But in this case, it is impossible to say who the government will match to where. It may be unmarried men and women, or it may be widowers and widows.
At that time, they had just settled down and had a little money, so they could only hastily marry off the nineteen-year-old Li Dafang to a migrant from the same village. On the one hand, they wanted to get married, and on the other hand, they thought they were in the same village after all. The Li Dalin brothers can also keep an eye on them.
Chen Dajuan's parents also considered this. They hoped that their two daughters could marry closer to each other, preferably right under their noses, so that their brothers from the mother's family could also help. After some selection, they chose the one among more than a dozen households. There are two young men of similar age to the two daughters, one of whom is Li Erlin.
The second elder has a good vision. Although the married life of the two daughters is difficult, it is also stable, peaceful and happy.
It rained heavily and the dirt road was muddy. Chen Dajuan did not dare to walk fast while carrying a bamboo basket containing eight coins. It took about half a quarter of an hour to reach her eldest brother Chen Dazhu's house. The courtyard and main room were both open. Looking in from the courtyard door, Chen Dajuan saw her three brothers sitting around the table, seemingly discussing something.
Thinking that everyone was here, Chen Dajuan kept walking. As soon as she entered the courtyard, she was spotted by her eldest sister-in-law, Xiao Zhao, who was sitting at the door of the east wing kitchen with her three children, mending clothes.
Chen Dazhu has two daughters and one son. The two daughters are at the front. The eldest daughter Lan'er is twelve years old, the youngest daughter Ying'er is ten years old, and his son Dawei is seven years old. When the three children saw Chen Dajuan, they all shouted loudly and excitedly. Aunt. They really like their aunt and treat them well. They occasionally send some meat over. Last year before the Chinese New Year, they even sent cloth for their mother to make new clothes for them. Cousin Ping An also often gives them snacks.
In their excitement, they looked at the bamboo basket carried by the aunt, wondering if the aunt had brought them delicious food again.
The three men in the main room heard the shouting outside, stopped their discussion and looked outside, and saw that the eldest sister was coming, so they hurried out.
Chen Dajuan nodded and waved in response to her sister-in-law and nieces and nephews. When she arrived under the eaves of the hall, without waiting for her three younger brothers to speak, she opened the cloth covering the small bamboo basket and said, "Your brother-in-law asked me to bring it to you. Two members of the family." Guan Qian, at the beginning of the year he went to the county with his uncle to buy grain, you go with him."
Although Li Erlin meant for her to tell her brothers and ask them if they wanted to go together, she did not want to discuss it with them. Instead, she acted like an eldest sister and her tone was unquestionable.
It’s raining so hard, it’s safer to go together and we can help each other out.
The three men had never seen so many copper coins put together. Their eyes widened and they subconsciously wanted to refuse.
But Chen Dajuan couldn't help but take out money after money and stuff it into the hands of her brothers, "Take what is given to you, and just pay it back to us slowly in the future."
They really needed the money, and thinking that the eldest sister's family should have saved a lot of money by selling tofu and bean cakes in the past few years, the three brothers did not refuse. Chen Dazhu looked at his wife and children who were looking this way under the eaves of the east chamber, shook the copper coins in his hand vigorously, and said, "Sister, I will definitely pay back these two coins within three years."
The eldest brother has expressed his stance, and Chen Erzhu and Chen Sanzhu also quickly expressed that I am the same.
In a good year, an acre of good-quality fields can yield a harvest of three shi, and an acre of medium-grade fields can yield a little more than 2 shi. Each of their families has two acres of top-grade fields and three acres of medium-grade fields, and a total harvest of 12 shi can be achieved.
The land tax rate of the Dajing Dynasty was one tithe, which meant that farmers like them, who owned their own land, needed to hand over one-tenth of the land's output to the court.
Normally, one stone of new grain can be sold for seven hundred coins. If they sell all the new grain, they can sell it for eleven stones, which theoretically can be exchanged for nearly eight thousand coins. The reason why I say theoretically is because it also depends on the quality of the new grain. The price of good quality will be slightly higher, while the price of poor color will be lower.
The price of brown rice in the county is fifty cents per dou. As long as they live frugally and deduct the cost of salt and oil, they will be able to have one or two cents left over a year. It will not be a problem to pay back two cents in three years.
Of course, the premise is that the weather is smooth and safe.
Chen Dajuan didn't say anything else, just nodded, and then said: "You should quickly pack up and go find your brother-in-law. I have to go to my little sister's house."
After that, he covered the remaining two coins with a cloth and walked into the rain. After watching the eldest sister leave, Erzhu and Sanzhu also quickly took two pieces of money and went back to their home.
Little Zhao then came to Chen Dazhu, looked at the copper coins tied up with a rope in his hand, and remained silent.
"My eldest sister lent this to us. Remember, I told my eldest sister to pay it back within three years." Chen Dazhu said.
Little Zhao nodded, looked at the pouring rain with a worried look, and said hesitantly: "Master, how about we buy less food?"
The kitchen is not far from the main room. Although the rain is noisy, she also heard an outline of what the three brothers Chen Dazhu were discussing in the main room just now. She knew that they had been arguing about whether to use all the money to buy food.
Such heavy rain showed no signs of abating even now. She knew that the summer harvest was almost certain to be poor. She was afraid that there would be no money left this year, and she was unwilling to spend all the money. If there is no copper in the family, if someone in the family has a cold or fever, and cannot afford a doctor or medicine, we can only worry.
Chen Dazhu sighed, "You can watch the children at home. I went to my brother-in-law's house and went to the county with them to buy food."
Although there was no direct answer, Xiao Zhao heard Chen Dazhu's decision, her face turned pale in an instant, and she clenched the corners of her clothes with her thumbs and index fingers. Her nails turned white due to too much force.
In fact, Chen Dazhu didn't know his wife's worries, but he felt that his father was right in what he said in the morning. It would be better if there was no disaster. If there is a flood, the more preparations are made now, the greater the chance of survival. Those who are unprepared or poorly prepared with a sense of luck will either wait for death, sell their sons, daughters, wives, or cause chaos.
He doesn't want to die, he doesn't want his wife and children to be separated, and he doesn't want to cause chaos, so he can only prepare as much as he can now. Even if there is no disaster, the food that we have spent all our money on hoarding can be kept and eaten by ourselves, or sold to grain stores at a low price. If we lose money, we will lose money.
